I love surfboards!Ever since I was 13 years old and desperate for a surfboard of my own, I’ve loved them. Now that I’m 29 and have had quite a few to call my own over the years my obsession with surfboards hasn’t diminished. I’m an dedicated collector with an impressive stash. I even keep a lot of boards that i’ve broken in two pieces. I get attached them to them!

Luckily, since I was 17, Rusty Surfboards has been hooking me up with boards. I’ve tried a few from other shapers along the way, but Rusty boards always have the high quality that I rely on. Rusty, the man himself, is also one of the most intelligent and innovative shapers out there. He listens to feedback and incorporates it into new models. He experiments with materials and fin placements. He keeps it interesting.

It had been a while since i’d gotten a new quiver, so recently I ordered up 5 new boards. Now that i’m no longer competing or worrying about forcing turns on waist high mushburgers for the judges, all I want to do is get barreled. I’ve also been really loving the quads lately, particularly my 5’4 Dwart. So my most recent order was filled with tube riders, quads, and a brand new Dwart.

Of course, white surfboards are no good for photos, so the first step was to bust out the spray paint and get to work! My boyfriend has built a shaping room in our garage and equipped it with board rack, lights, masking tape of various widths, rolls of paper, and a selection of spray paint colors.

The first step is to put in the headphones, pick a favorite album (in my case it was Pacific Dust by The Mother Hips) then start by taping off the Rusty logo and around the rails (so that paint stays on top and you don’t get over-spray onto the bottom.

I like to keep my sprays asymmetrical, so the next step is to use some paper to block off half of the board. I also like to keep some white, so I use thin tape to cover a few lines of white. I sprayed 4 boards before taking this photo and I recycle the tape, so that’s why the tape is so beautifully colored.

There’s a lot of thought that has to go into the layer on layer paint and tape routine. It can be tricky to visualize how it will come out depending on which color goes on first.

I’m heading off to Fiji tonight and bringing all but the Dwart, so I had to take out a couple and test them out before carefully stacking them in the boardbag. Here are are a few snaps by local photographer Alex Shea of me riding the GTR at my local beach.

This is one of my first waves on the GTR and I was just trying to feel the slide of the quad. It felt great!

I was a little worried about pulling into this little double up tube. I didn’t want to buckle a brand new board!

Feeling good! I can’t wait to get this thing into some big tubes in Fiji!